This is lightly edited (so errors all mine) from Keryck/”Mori Totebag” in The Abs-Tract Organization Discord Server (for metamodernist left-wing discussion – see https://abs-tract.org/).

I thought it was particularly interesting because it sweeps in so much, and for the single core concept ‘copoiesis’ (which I can find a *few* mentions of online, in an artistic context).

Post one: semipermeable membranes & autopoesis —mutually reinforced white supremacist systemic institutions

> {re: “White Supremacy as Living System” by Irami Osei-Frimpong

inside and outside, and a membrane, yup

i call that collective (“outside”), autonomy‐agency (“inside”) and prehension‐agency (“semipermeable membrane”)

the outside of white supremacy is White Habitus, the inside is White Chauvinism, and the membrane is White Fragility (though that term is abused) especially in the white family and church (not letting some things in that would challenge their internal dynamics) & blaxploitation (taking in black ppl [and occasional other racialized ppls] into their metabolism then spitting them out when no longer useful to White supremacy).

ppl who aren’t white can start to take on these facets of behavior through coercion, artificial scarcity, the caste system inextricable of capitalism has a way that allows white supremacy to hyperexploit Black ppl (and indigenous, but im focused on Irami’s topic primarily).

Irami Osei-Frimpong – The Funky Academic
White Supremacy: A Living System

Post two: a perhaps “systemic conspiracy” against the co-poetic aspect of human subjectivity

a perhaps “systemic conspiracy” against the co-poetic aspect of human subjectivity, rendering humans ill-equipped to imagine an ethics that fully addresses our basic needs for care, encounter, sharing of trauma, trauma healing, resistance of narcissism, compassion-informed empathy rather than a passive empathy as automatic process that is never given institutional protection and support.

she traces this neglect of copoeisis to monotheism, through Christendom, and into the commodity fetishism that capitalism supplies as our only source of temporary relief of trauma (cheap thrills, so to speak, without consummate humanizing care).

she relates this neglect to the historical subjugation of both pregnancy & human creativity in general to serve the ruling class structures in a way that disarms everyday ppl from resisting dehumanization in ethics, philosophy, economy, art, and even language.

———————COPOESIS + feminism,,,
without robust interdisciplinary and societal/layperson recognition of COpoesis, not just the autopoesis that phallic ideals over-emphasize, ethics & philosophy remain incapable of addressing human affairs appropriately & sustainably
———

anti-abortion & feminine-antagonistic arguments are based on a failure to move beyond classical non-ethical thinking on Life-Drive & Death-Drive, which only think in service of the reproduction of non-human & non-subjects (“life-drive” in Freud is about reproduction of germ cells, “libido” in Lacan is about splitting and cocoons of amoeba & lamella, etc…).

autopoesis by itself fails to take into account the copoeisis that is integral to human subjectivity, whose groundwork is laid by interconnection in late pregnancy (when nervous system is fully formed, but prior to birth) of the pre-subjective affects of people as a social species, through birth and early post-natal catastrophic learning events that shape how humans relate to both other humans, non-humans and themselves as a full subject later on in life.

the prevalence of non-human, un-humanized life-drive (though still relevance) eschew people’s ability to construct ethics that take copoesis, empathy, sharing, the groundwork of subjectivity, etc, into account—rendering these attempted ethics inappropriate and incomplete for human needs and desires.

this is also reflected in language (and what some languages, to varying degrees, don’t adequately symbolize), so our ethics—thus also therapy ethics—and linguistics currently need metafeminist philosophy in order to make sense of the tension between feminist activism & prevailing symbols and concepts regarding gender, pregnancy, femininity, eroticism, choice, subjectivity, needs, etc.

Bracha L Ettinger Metafeminist and Feminist Notes. Oxytocin Mothering the World, London March 2019
Procreate Project

Post three: digital stupor, isolation, narcissism and retraumatization

an effect of this neglect of copoeisis is the addiction to “digital stupor” that prevents us from dealing with trauma together, and leads us to retraumatize ourselves in this stupor and narcissistically compete and attack each other for instant gratification without compassion, in an accelerated space that makes our connection stronger but our interconnection more and more anti-social & incapable of creating spaces of healing or growth for each other (unless we resist the instantaneousness of the very media we use to communicate)

Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
XII. Digital PTSD. The Practice of Art and Its Impact on Digital Trauma | Bracha Ettinger

Comment from Benjamin David Steele
“autopoesis by itself fails to take into account the copoeisis that is integral to human subjectivity, whose groundwork is laid by interconnection in late pregnancy (when nervous system is fully formed, but prior to birth) of the pre-subjective affects of people as a social species, through birth and early post-natal catastrophic learning events that shape how humans relate to both other humans, non-humans and themselves as a full subject later on in life.”

That deeply resonates with me. I’ve never heard the term copoeisis. It is a good term for getting at the intrinsic social nature of humans (and many other species) that is deep within our biology. This can be understood also in terms of epigenetics. I’m often reminded of the mice who were shocked into jumping after smelling a scent and for many generations following the mice kept jumping simply with the scent. The 7 generations of jumping mice would be the equivalent of 2-3 centuries of human society.

Now think about all of the major events and social institutions (from genocide to slavery) that potentially exist within this epigenetic reach of intergenerational trauma. But the same applies for positive changes in recent history, such as increased education and literacy, not to mention the effective treatment of most infectious diseases. This is why progress can only be measured over the very long term. Public health does have immediate effects. And yet policies we implement now might not show their full effect until the centuries following.